Category: Projects

The first parts I ordered were the plastics. I found a very nice eBay seller; reprappt, who was kind enough as to answer all of my newbie questions even if those not relating to the parts he was selling.

The full list of plastic parts needed for the i3 can be found on the RepRap wiki. Still being a bit confused over the complete material list I compared the parts I received with the list on the wiki. Still confused but it’s falling into place as the build is progressing. I’m the instructions from reprapuniverse.com. Although my setup differs somewhat the instructions are easy to follow and adapt to my build.

Prusa i3 plastic parts

Warping

A few of the pieces have a slight warp and some need clean up of holes and edges but all in all I’m happy with them.

Warping is a common problem with certain thermoplastics. One of them being ABS which is commonly used with 3D printers. When the printing material cools it shrinks and if the material cools too quickly it leads to warping which in turn creates internal stress or tensions within the printed piece. The most common visible result of warping is corners lifting off the build surface.

In order to battle warping and thus creating better build quality a heated bed can be used for slowing down the cooling of the printed piece.

Warping of printed parts

Warping can be not only ugly but also disastrous for precision parts. In my case it’s the X end idler and motor mount. The warp is obvious but the parts will work fine until I can print out replacements.

Cleaning up

Most of the parts need clean up. Usually the printing material closest to the heat bed tends to bleed some. Use a fine file or sandpaper and be careful, especially with parts like the extruder gears.

Close up of the extruder gears

Also some of the holes will most likely need to be widened. Depending on the size and amount of widening needed either use a round file or a drill. Be extra careful if using a drill. The parts can easily crack if the drill bit gets stuck or angled.

Widening the X end idler with an 8 mm drill

My parts

These are all the plastic parts I have for my build.

Y axis motor mount

Y axis idler

Y axis corners

Y axis belt holder

Z axis tops (left and right)

Z axis bottoms (left and right)

X end idler

X end motor mount

X axis carriage

Extruder block

Gidler

Wade extruder gears

Magnetic holders (for end stops), fan mount and belt guides

This is the second post in the Mendel Prusa i3 printer build log. You can find all posts in the series here.

The Les Paul has been my fave axe for as long as I can remember. Not seeing any falling into my price range anytime soon I’ve been set for a long time on building one.

I do find my way through a workshop but I’m by no means a luthier (yeah, I had to look that up) so I thought I’d pick up a kit with all the critical steps already done. Also since this will be first attempt on “building” a guitar I didn’t want to spend too much cash.

I finally settled for a 59 model Les paul style flamed top kit off eBay. It’s a set-neck construction, has a basswood body with a flamed maple top and a hard maple neck with a rosewood fingerboard (628 mm/24.75″, 22 frets). Mechanics, pick-ups etc I’ll have to get to later on.

First thing I started thinking about was the paint work of course. Crazy or classic? Crazy will look – just crazy. Classic on the other hand will look awesome, as long as I manage to pull it off.

Seeing I have the 3D printer to work on during summer it will be some time before I come back to this project, but I was too stoked as for not sharing this 😀

Yes, I’m a complete newb and I will make mistakes. But most of all I will appreciate every little bit of advice I can get on the way.

I’ve been browsing around, drooling for a 3D printer for quite some time now but not really having had the budget for one combined with the print quality (or lack thereof) of earlier home/DIY 3D printers I haven’t gotten around getting one. Until now, that is.

After a lot of browsing the Intertubes for information I settled for a Prusa i3 printer. I3 stands for iteration 3 and it’s the latest design by RepRap core developer Prusajr (Jozef Prusa). It incorporates lessons learned from the earlier two models combined with those of other modern RepRap designs.

Apart form the single frame model there is also a box style frame. While the single frame model requires CNC or laser cutting for milling the pieces the box style frame is designed for easy manufacturing at home from plywood or MDF.

I decided early on that I wanted to get either a kit or buy parts and assemble the unit myself. Partly because shipping would be a pain in the a** and partly because I would probably get hit by additional costs for customs and taxes.

Sourcing the parts from different suppliers proved to be somewhat difficult. Not having a complete shopping list I opted for a few sets of parts; frame kit, plastics and electronics being the main three. In addition I will need a hot end and probably some other bits and pieces on the way.

This is the first in a series of posts about assembling a Mendel Prusa i3 printer.

This was a commission project for a friend. I hadn’t been playing with electronics for quite a while before taking on this project. Even had to get a new soldering iron since my old one just didn’t want to fire up. And the multi meter also had seen better days – constantly off by 200 ohms (though accurate enough for the build).

The design is based on an HMC-150 DIY remote controller build by Chris Woodhouse. I didn’t do any major changes except for the cable. Chris originally used an Ethernet cable which he soldered permanently to his controller. I opted for a detachable VGA cable instead.

The major thing I learned from the process was plan ahead. I had to redo the soldering a couple of times due to bad planning. Also make sure your components works visually the way you want. In my case the knobs didn’t cover the nuts of the pots – not looking as good as I planned.

Another thing I probably would have done differently was the control layout. I followed Chris’ vertical layout with alternating positions of switches and knobs. I retrospect the controller would be more ergonomical with a horizontal layout with knobs on top and switches below.